Great Achievement of Japan on Seismic Hazard and Prediction in the Last Three Decades

Japanese seismologists were active in almost every aspect of seismological research during the last three decades. The recent researches in Japan (as of 1993) are summarized in Special Issue of Journal of Physics of the Earth (Vol. 43, Nos. 3-5, 1995). Special Issues of Zisin (J. Seism. Soc. Japan), Vol. 44 (1991) and Vol. 50 (1998) carrying 30 and 24 review papers and several other review papers in the same journal during the 1990s are also useful to evaluate recent seismological researches in Japan, but these are written in Japanese. In recent years, more than 300 papers have been presented at every meeting of the Seismological Society of Japan held twice a year. I only cite some of the research objectives for which Japanese seismologists have made significant achievements.